History Main / CreepyCircusMusic

* Music/{{Nightwish}}'s song Scaretale certainly counts, at least from about 4:10 onwards, while also appearing to homage ''[[Ride/TheHauntedMansion Grim Grinning Ghosts]]''.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' episode "Mime for a Change" makes great use of this when Rainbow the Clown loses his color and is turning all of Townsville grey and silent.

* The ComicBook/GreenGoblin's theme from ''Film/SpiderMan'', [[https://youtu.be/PhVlJq2DsgY?t=174 especially]] during his first apperance at the parade has a very unsettlingly and menacing jaunty carnival tune to it. Given the theme is done by the aforementioned Music/DannyElfman and the Goblin is often considered Marvel's anwser to the Joker, it's very fitting. For Goblin's return in ''Film/SpiderManNoWayHome'', the creepy circus allusions in his theme music is even more [[https://youtu.be/6wsw7yQSVAo?t=179 overt]] and when played [[SoundtrackDissonance during Norman's attack on young Spidey and Aunt May]] - all complete with EvilLaugh, it's scary as hell.

* Music/KevinMacleod has written a few songs in this style, such as his "Tenebrous Brothers Carnival" series, and "Waltz of the Carnies".

* ''VideoGame/DeadByDaylight'' plays [[https://youtu.be/B308D3Eakf4 suitably creepy music]] when you select the [[MonsterClown Clown]] as your killer in the main

* A creepy little number called "Yuuenchi" plays in ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' when Spike Spiegel battles Mad Pierrot at his abandoned amusement park.

* The Creepy Docks music in ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}''.
** ''VideoGame/BioshockInfinite'' also features an apparently-cheerful calliope tune that plays while Booker and Elizabeth are at Battleship Bay. The problem? Listening closely reveals it's an instrumental version of [[Music/CyndiLauper Cyndi Lauper's]] "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," originally released in 1979 and made famous with Lauper's 1983 version...and the game takes place in ''1912''. It's one of the clues that [[spoiler: the "tears" in time-space caused by the quantum particles which suspend the city of Columbia in the air are actually windows into years ahead, and that there are forces working to rewrite the past by stealing from the future.]]

* The main menu music of ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' and the final level, The Meat Circus.

** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', Kefka's theme, a sorta circus/militaristic march mix, actually averts this trope. Instead, the creepiness comes in when you see what [[OmnicidalManiac Kefka]] gleefully will do while his theme is playing... Suffice to say, you will come to associate Kefka's theme with very, very bad things. No surprise, then, that his theme is present throughout the entirety of the final boss theme "Dancing Mad," particularly the fourth movement.

* ''VideoGame/SilentHill1'' has its own amusement park with creepy carnival music, which is revisited in ''VideoGame/SilentHill3''.

* Although it isn't your standard circus tune, the creepy theme from the ''[[VideoGame/BanjoKazooie Banjo-Tooie]]'' level Witchyworld fits the mold.

* ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gY-6BM28Ds Candle Cove Calliope Music]]'', allegedly what the music in CandleCove sounded like. This is one of many songs in a series of songs that this person made in 2011 that get progressively darker and creepier as the year goes on. Some of his songs from later in the year feature a DarkReprise of this song.

* Parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Stewie Loves Lois", in which Peter, who thinks he's been raped by Dr. Hartman after simply being given a prostate exam, embellishes his recollection of the exam in question to include the doctor laughing in a pitched-down voice and riding a carousel with what sounds like "Somewhere, My Love" playing in the background.

* The theme from ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicRoundabout'' has a certain haunting aspect, noted by Bill Bailey in one of his stand-up routines in which he "re-inserts" the "lost middle eight" which features Zebedee in a maniacal rant.

[[folder:Podcasts]]
* Creepy Circus Music serves as the Leitmotif of ''Podcast/TheThrillingAdventureHour'' villain [[MonsterClown Nightmares the Clown]] whenever he appears. It's immediately followed by Sadie Doyle delightedly shouting "Clown!"

[[folder:Podcasts]]
* Creepy Circus Music serves as the Leitmotif of ''Podcast/TheThrillingAdventureHour'' villain [[MonsterClown Nightmares the Clown]] whenever he appears. It's immediately followed by Sadie Doyle delightedly shouting "Clown!"
[[/folder]]

* OlderThanTelevision: "Alabama Song" [[RefrainFromAssuming (commonly but mistakenly thought of as "Whiskey Bar")]] from ''Theatre/TheRiseAndFallOfTheCityOfMahagonny'', first performed in 1930. A wasted flapper and a derelict-looking man in a rumpled suit joylessly chant the nihilistic lyrics as they ride in the back of a clunky old pickup truck - and the discordant musical accompaniment is effectively sinister and disreputable in sound, describable only as "circus music being played in a junkyard."

* Shows up in several ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' episodes, namely "Dig That Cat", "Lower Berth", "Strung Along" and "Food For Thought".

* Mary's {{Leitmotif}} in ''VideoGame/{{Ib}}'' is a sad-sounding waltz played on a [[OminousMusicBoxTune music box]], giving it this sound. One Website/YouTube user made [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz9bD_Dmqwc a remix]] that makes it sound [[UpToEleven even more]] like circus music.

[[AC:For added atmosphere, play the music from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz9bD_Dmqwc this clip]] while reading on.]]

* The theme music from ''Film/TheElephantMan'' uses this to heartbreaking effect.

* "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!" by Music/TheBeatles. Creator/CirqueDuSoleil's ''LOVE'' takes this to its logical conclusion by making this song the centerpiece of a CircusOfFear, representing the controversies the group triggered in both the U.K. and the U.S. after Beatlemania's initial wave. As the scene climaxes, the music becomes a distressingly sinister combination of "Helter Skelter" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". AND TONIGHT, MR. KITE IS TOPPING THE BILL!!!!!!

* The ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'' episode "The Heebie Jeebies" makes liberal use of this due to the MonsterOfTheWeek being a troupe of Phantom [[EnemyMime Mimes]], and it livens the genre up with threatening and booming drumbeats during more intense moments.

* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}'' [[TheMovie movie]] has an [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome excellently creepy scene]] with the [[spoiler:Other]] Kangaroo Rats. Bonus points for occurring in an actual circus of sorts.

* "You're Only Second Rate", the VillainSong from ''WesternAnimation/AladdinTheReturnOfJafar'' is a swingy Broadway-style song that contains some elements of this. For example, circus-themed imagery is used throughout the song, and when Jafar sings the line "You think your cat's a meanie, but your tiger's tame", you can hear the melody of "Entry of the Gladiators" in the background.

* ''Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future'' has "[[https://youtu.be/VpykhkB2hPE Death 13’s theme]]," an offputting circus tune that plays when you face Death 13, a clown/grim reaper hybrid Stand.